Sotheby's postpones Buddhist gems auction that India called 'colonial exploitation'

A set of Buddhist gems that were once mixed with the cremated remains of the Buddha will not be auctioned off to the highest bidder this week as planned. 

Sotheby's has postponed its planned auction of the Piprahwa gems after outcry from Buddhists, art scholars and the government of India, which threatened legal action and accused the prestigious broker of "participating in continued colonial exploitation."

The auction house said Wednesday it has delayed the sale with the agreement of its clients, three descendents of the British landowner who unearthed the relics from their resting place in India 127 years ago.

"This will allow for discussions between the parties, and we look forward to sharing any updates as appropriate," the company said. 

Naman Ahuja, a professor of Buddhist art at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, said the gems are "the cultural property of the world" and should not be monetized. 

"It's quite galling to hear that sacred relics can be commodified," Ahuja told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal on Tuesday, before Sotheby's made the announcement. 

"One didn't know that objects that were interred with the original ashes of the Buddha — you know, the offerings that pilgrims and people who actually belonged to the family of the Buddha had made — could be treated in this manner."

'Extraordinary things'

The collection includes amethysts, corals, pearls, garnets and gold and more, some worked into pedants and beads. Sotheby's calls them "a kaleidoscopic range of precious materials" that are of "unparalleled religious, archaeological and historical importance."

On that point, Ahuja and Sotheby's are in agreement. 

"They're extraordinary things," Ahuja said with a gleeful giggle as he described seeing them in person at the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore and Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. "They are quite beautiful to behold."

But long before they were displayed in museums, or prepared for auction, they were mixed in with ashes and bone fragments of Siddhartha Gautama, who is commonly referred to as the Buddha, and buried for thousands of years in a funerary monument, known as a stupa, in present-day Uttar Pradesh, India.

There they remained until 1898, when William Claxton Peppé, an English estate manager, had them excavated.

According to the Guardian newspaper, the British crown claimed Peppé's find under the 1878 Indian Treasure Trove Act. The bones and ash were given to the Buddhist monarch King Chulalongkorn of Siam, while most of the 1,800 gems went to what is now the Indian Museum in Kolkata.

But about one-fifth of the remaining gems, which Sotheby's describes as "duplicates," remained with Peppé and were passed down through his heirs — most recently L.A.-based film director and producer Chris Peppé.

CBC reached out to Peppé for comment through Sotheby's and his agent, but did not hear back.

In an article on the Sotheby's website, Peppé describes his family's relationship with the relics as one of "custodianship."

"From the time we received the Piprahwa gem relics, my cousins and I have sought to make them available for viewing by the public (ideally a Buddhist public) to see at no cost to the institution borrowing them," he wrote.

Over the last six years, he says, the gems have been displayed at museums around the world. Going forward, he said, he wants "the power of these gems to reach everyone, Buddhist or not."

"So as our custodianship of the Piprahwa gem relics ends, I hope they will go to someone who really values them. And I hope that many people will be able to see the gems and connect with the Buddhists who gave them over 2,000 years ago, with our shared human experience of wonder and awe and with the Buddha and his teachings."

India issues legal notice

Peppé told BBC News that he and his family looked into donating the relics to temples and museums, but that they "all presented different problems on closer scrutiny."

"An auction seems the fairest and most transparent way to transfer these relics to Buddhists and we are confident that Sotheby's will achieve that," he said. 

The Indian government, however, believes the best thing to do with the gems is give them back.

The country's ministry of culture has issued a legal notice to Peppé and Sotheby's Hong Kong demanding they halt the auction, repatriate the relics and issue a public apology.

The notice, posted in full on Instagram, accuses Peppé and Sotheby's of contravening both Indian and international law protecting items of cultural heritage, and threatens to issue legal proceedings against them "before competent international bodies and Indian and Hong Kong courts."

Asked whether this threat will be enough to cancel the auction, Ahuja said: "It must."

"The ethical and the correct thing would be to have Sotheby's and the Peppé family and others recognise that these are the inalienable heritage of the world, and to co-operate in their dissemination and their safe custody, the transfer of their safe custody to India for the benefit of all Buddhists."

The ministry said on Facebook on Wednesday it was "pleased" the auction was postponed after its intervention.